Socks

Hi all I'm new here and hoping to get some friendly advice.

My cpu is runs at about 70 degrees Celsius (158 F).
My motherboard is at 61 degrees Celsius (142 F).
Both as I speak with just FireFox running.

I don't think my case is bad, but it sure has a lot of dust in it. (I remember it's Lian Li something.)

My computer has served me for over 7 years and it's not bad, but I don't see it running some of the games that are coming out soon. So I don't know if I should get a new computer after Windows 7 release, or attempt to overclock it and do something about the temperature.

I'm the kind that likes to fiddle with stuff, but I don't know if it's worth the effort since the computer is so old now.

Thanks.

Note: I did change my motherboard after my previous one stopped working after a bumpy plane trip. At the same time I upgraded my 8600 to 8800s to match the motherboard's SLI capability (though enabling the SLI prevents me from dual monitoring for some reason).

killa_concept

It's old, but it still has a few years IMO - this coming from someone with the same processor . Clean out the dust immediately as 70C is only a few degrees off the recommended highest temps for that chip... next buy a decent cooler and good thermal paste for the chip - I would recommend either the Mugen2 ($37) or Megahalem ($60) for a cooler depending on your budget and OCZ Freeze for the thermal paste.

Then all that's left to do is to read up on overclocking and take that CPU to 3.4-3.6GHz! You'll see quite a jump in performance after doing that and you should be able to run all current games out at near max settings.

If you're thinking about updating your system, my suggestion would be to first upgrade to 2x2GB DDR2-1066 as it's cheap these days, will give you a decent performance boost, and is the sweet spot for most applications. After that, you can consider upgrading your graphics cards to whatever suits your budget (though I would recommend just waiting for the 3xx line as it's not too far away and your 8800s should work decently enough till then).

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tenchimuyo93

^ this.
though ill add in the Dark Knight for 38$

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Socks

Thanks for the response. I'm glad to hear this cpu has been worth every penny. I'll try to figure out how to overclock it and find a good cooling system.

Is it necessary to find a good cooler for my GPU as well? In my case they are stacked right on top of each other and even though I'm not too familiar with this stuff I don't think it's getting enough circulation in there

Also, I have read that more than 3 gb of ram is useless on a 32 bit system. I'll still do what you recommended, but a little more detail on this would be much appreciated. I do have 2 more slots on my motherboard as I've only used slots 1 and 3. Should I just get 2 x 1GB sticks for slots 2 and 4, or should I replace my old ones with 2 x 2GB? Does matching my old ram matter or as long as the new ones match it's fine?

Sorry about all the newbie questions. I appreciate all your help. Thanks again.


Edit1:
I live in Canada and the computer stores in my city doesn't seem to carry any of the coolers you guys have suggested. I went with "ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme Cooler" as it looked similar to the Megahalem and had a few positive reviews.

Temporarily I have directed a household fan at my case with the sides removed. The idle cpu temperature is now at 50 and motherboard at 33. Tomorrow, I'll pick up the heat sink, clean out all the dust, and hopefully start overclocking (pretty excited)

Edit2:
Turns out that the store had sold out on the ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme, but I found a similar ThermalRight IFX-14. After cleaning out the dust from the case and installing the new heat sink, my cpu temperature reduced by 40 degrees celsius (from 70 to 30). The original stock cooler was covered with dust and I don't think the thermal compound was applied correctly previously

Anyhow, I'm really happy now and taking my next step into overclocking my cpu.

Thanks guys for the much appreciated help

killa_concept

Hey buddy! Sorry there - I generally try to make a point of keeping up with threads in which I've helped, but I've been a bit swamped with class work the past 2 or so days

On to your questions:

Download HWmonitor (you'll need this for stress testing your CPU overclock later anyways). It'll log and show current/minimum/maximum temperatures for various components while it's running. Leave it on during a gaming session, and make sure that your GPU temps are still acceptable afterward. If they've gone over 75C or so after gaming, consider upping the fan speed... if the increased fan speed is too loud, then you should be considering aftermarket coolers.

32bit systems can implement about 3.5GB of ram... since you don't want to lose dual channel by using 3 slots or mixed ram, that means 4GB is the way to go. The advantages of 2x2GB instead of 4x1GB is plentiful: no chances of incompatibility, higher overclocks on the ram, ability to purchase 1066 without having to clock down to match your old set, and most importantly, less strain on the northbridge which could cause a lower CPU overclock. I would personally suggest selling your 2x1GB DDR2-800 set and buying 2x2GB DDR2-1066

Ah, you should have put your location in your user profile settings or mentioned it in your opening post as I could have suggested things based on availability in your country. The ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme Cooler is known by enthusiasts as the "TRUE"... if you look around the forums, a lot of people use it and it was the BEST air cooler around until the Megahalem was produced and beat the TRUE by a few degrees only a few months ago.

Another excellent cooler, and pretty much on par with the TRUE. It's either the 2nd or 3rd best air cooler after the Megahalem, depending on how you set it up. What fans are you using on it with it BTW?

Also, this INFO thread I wrote awhile back might interest you. It's a test I did comparing the IFX-14 against the Megahalem. To sum it up, there was only a 1C difference between the two when used on a 3.6GHz Q6600, which is well within the margin of error. You might want to read it over though, I spent a decent time on the study and quite a few people considered it a good read. You might as well seeing as though you have the same CPU and cooler

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Yowza that was a lot of typing haha. Better get back to finishing my Political Science paper... feel free to post back or PM me if you need other questions answered

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Socks

Hey, thanks for checking back, sorry to hear about all your work. I'm more than happy to tinker with stuff

Did some overclocking yesterday and today with a lot of forum reading.
I'm using CPU-Z, Core Temp, Prime95, MemTest, and 3DMark06. I'll give HWmonitor a shot as well.

I have the old 2 x 8800GTS 640MB SLI. I remember reading that the video RAM is included in the 3.5GB total for Vista32 since it will also need an address in order to be accessed. These two video cards together will give me 1.25GB + the 2GB of RAM = 3.25GB out of the 3.5. Am I misunderstanding something? If it's just for the increased overclocking speed, I think my motherboard will be the limiting factor as I've read that the P5N-D is not all that great to OC with (Already bumping into some issues, I'll explain my situation in a new thread as I don't really think it belongs here in the Cooling Threads ).

I didn't purchase any fans yet as I still have my household fan blowing into the system with the side panels removed. I wasn't even sure if the heat sink was going to fit in my case and I knew I'd have to go back to the store to get other stuff.

I don't know if this was a good or bad idea, but I felt more safe having this big fan since I wouldn't have to worry about overheating as much if I accidentally pumped up the voltage a bit too high. I'll be sure to watch the temperature as I close everything back up.

I also read through your article comparing your Megatron to the IFX it was quite interesting indeed. I personally didn't like the shape of the IFX since it kept catching my wires. Doesn't look like the Megahalem has a back cooler tho, I wonder how effective it is.


My overclocking issues I'll post under the Intel threads: Q6600 B3 on P5N-D running into some problems

Thanks a lot for all the advice